Platinum
by sdaht
Summary: After getting dragged into another of Barry's wild ideas, Lucas is thrust onto the road, to travel and advance through the world. If only he wasn't stuck dealing with these bowl cuts and nihilists. (Platinum novelization)
1. 01: Trial by Starly

A/N: So, this is my go at a novelization of Pokémon Platinum. I just wanted to find a story with Lucas as the main character. Of course, I've found some, but none that are complete so I decided to just post one of my own. As you may notice, despite this being a Platinum novelization, I chose to use the DP opening instead because I thought it worked as a better way to do it.

P/S: I have made lots of little edits to this first chapter and including Lucas and Barry's first battle to it, but all in all it's not gone through any other big changes.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon; it's the property of Game Freak.

* * *

Chapter 1: Trial By Starly

For what would probably be one of the most important days of his life, Lucas's morning was quite boring, all things considered. He woke at six-thirty on the dot, washed up and got dressed in half an hour, then plopped down in front of his PC to check the news.

He'd barely finished reading an article on the return of Professor Rowan, Sinnoh's leading pokémon researcher, from his travels in Kanto when his best friend, Barry, barged in through his door, just like he would any other day of the week. This time, however, the boy didn't bother with a greeting and rushed to the TV remote on his bed, flicking the device on. After flicking through a few channels, he finally found what he was looking for: a report from Johto on an enraged red gyarados.

When the report was finished, Barry switched the television off and gave Lucas an expectant look. In response, the boy cheekily scratched at the back of his head and replied, "Hearing about a shiny gyarados is cool and all, but it's not like shiny Pokémon are unheard of or anything."

"That's not the point!" Barry shouted, shaking his head profusely.

"Oh. Then what is?" Lucas questioned, used to how loud and excitable Barry was, even in the mining.

"It was in a lake!" He exclaimed, like that changed everything.

In response, Lucas just blinked for a few seconds, trying to understand why his friend was excited to find that a water type did in fact, live in water. "Yes, Barry, it was found in a lake; a body of water. You know, like most water types."

"And don't we have our own lake just around the corner? We could go searching for a rare pokémon there, or better yet, catch the guardian of the lake!"

Now that Lucas could see the point in what Barry was saying, he wasn't sure he wanted to. Mesprit, the legendary pokémon said to reside in Lake Verity, was revered as a guardian deity by most of Twinleaf Town. It was a legitimate religion, built around all three of Sinnoh's lakes and their guardians, followed by thousands of people region-wide, but it wasn't quite on par with Creationism, the worship and belief system centered around Arceus. Many viewed belief and worship of the lake guardians as little more than a sect of Arceus worship, but that was all beside the point. Lucas didn't worship the lake trio (nor did he Arceus, though he was prone to swearing by its name here and there, like many other people), but to the Twinleaf's townspeople the idea of capturing, or even attempting to capture, the pokémon was as blasphemous as you could get, and they'd be branded heretics. Lucas voiced these concerns, and in turn, Barry waved them off. "It's not like they'll figure anything out unless we capture it, and by then they can't do anything about it."

Barry's nonchalance was off-putting, to say the least, but nothing that Lucas could say would change his friend's one-track mind. Lucas, being the good friend he was, would join him, despite the consequences that his stupidity would entail. Even so, if he was going to go down anyways, he wouldn't go down without a fight. "What about pokéballs? I doubt you've been able to sneak out and buy any strong enough to capture it without weakening it first."

At that, the hyperactive blonde grinned and produced a dozen or so black and yellow Ultra Balls from his pockets, all miniaturized for efficiency. "My dad left a couple in one of his drawers last time he visited. I took as many as I could without making it too obvious." He explained, handing Lucas about half of them.

At that point, there was little Lucas could say in return, so he just gave up and sighed, acting as though he hadn't already decided to join in on Barry's little stint. Someone had to make sure the teen didn't end up getting hurt, and Lucas was probably the only person in town, barring Barry's mother, prepared to deal with his inability to ever not move. With a nod, Lucas affirmed that he was on board, and Barry jumped excitedly before dashing out the door, probably to wait for him at the town entrance.

The black-haired teen could only shake his head and chuckle about what he'd gotten dragged into this time. After getting that out of his system, he headed out of his room and down the stairs to find his mother, Johanna, in the kitchen, cooking breakfast as she watched one of those old sitcoms she loved so much. As he made it down the bottom step he greeted, "Hey mom."

"Good morning." She chirped without breaking concentration from either of her

activities.

"Barry and I are heading out to Lake Verity. He wants to go do Barry-things, and it's up to me to watch out for him," Lucas announced as he slipped on his shoes and, after thinking over it, his jacket. He could probably make it without one, despite the early fall weather, but he wasn't one to take risks.

"Alright, honey. Don't forget to watch out for yourself, too."

With that done the teen was ready to leave when his mom called his name one more time. He turned to look at her and found that she'd finally looked up from what she was doing. "Don't go wandering into any tall grass. It's dangerous when you don't have any pokémon with you." She warned seriously, and Lucas could only nod, not that he'd been planning to do so in the first place. Content with his answer, Johanna went back to cooking, leaving her son to walk out.

Lucas stepped into the morning's cool air, taking it on with a smile on his face. He'd been smart to bring his jacket, as it was a bit colder than usual, but he didn't mind it much. The cold was nothing new to him, and he'd grown to like the feel of it. After getting his fill of the air, he walked over to the town entrance where, as expected, Barry stood to wait for him. The blonde looked quite annoyed with him, though, and muttered, "Next time you make me wait for so long I'm fining you a million poké dollars."

Then the two walked over to Lake Verity, discussing and forming something resembling a plan. In the end, they decided that the best course of action was probably to wait and see if the pokémon would show up. Lucas was somewhat surprised that Barry even agreed to his plan, but he supposed that they both knew there was not much they could do to grab Mesprits's attention short of hopping into the freezing water and swimming to the cave in the lake's middle. To be honest, Lucas half-expected for Barry to suggest such a plan, but the threat of hypothermia seemed to be enough to get him to hold off on the impulsiveness. That was worth remembering for later.

Once the plan had been set and agreed upon, they started up some small chat about interesting things they'd found recently. Lucas's mind went back to that earlier article on Professor Rowan, and he brought it up. The two of them often kept tabs on the professor, half because he only lived one short route away and, half because he was probably their best bet for getting a pokémon any time soon. There was always the option of ordering starter Pokemon through the League Starter Program, but the deliveries were known to be inconsistent in delivery

times, and the selection was limited to common pokémon, some of which could even be found on routes close to Twinleaf. Professor Rowan, however, as a certified regional professor, held the right to pass out the near endangered pokémon that made up Sinnoh's starter trio: Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup.

As the two discussed these things they didn't notice two people walking in front and towards them until it was almost too late. At the last second, Lucas noticed what was up and stepped aside, pulling Barry with him, to let the duo pass.

"Thank you very much," The first of the two, an old, white-haired man in a long brown coat, thanked them before moving on. Lucas couldn't quite put his hand on it, but something about the man's appearance felt familiar to him.

"Thank you very much," The man's companion, a bluenette around their age, parroted.

When the two were out of earshot, Lucas muttered, "That older one looks oddly familiar.

"I dunno. All old guys look the same to me," His friend shrugged, and Lucas sighed.

They dropped the subject and continued into the lake area. The both of them had visited the lake many times before, so the temperature drop as they neared the lake didn't faze them much, though Barry did extend the sleeves of his shirt. For a couple of minutes, the two just stood around, waiting as they'd planned, when Barry pointed to a nearby tree and asked, "Hey, what's that?"

Lucas looked to where his friend was pointing and noticed that the tree stood behind a patch of tall grass, so he said," Barry we really shouldn't step into any tall grass."

"Oh please, what's the worst that could happen; we get attacked by a bidoof or some starly?" Barry scoffed, rushing to the tree before Lucas could object again.

Lucas had half a mind to let his friends wander into danger alone before his own curiosity kicked in and lead him to join Barry, though he walked carefully to avoid rousing any sleeping wild pokemon.

When he made it to Barry's side, he found him standing over a brown briefcase with the name "Vincent Rowan" written on it. For a few short time, Lucas just stared at it. Then everything clicked.

"Holy crap! That old guy…"

"…Was Professor Rowan!" His friend finished, and the two looked at each other with looks of surprise and excitement all over their faces. Before they could think of what to do with the information, a chorus of chirps erupted from behind them, and a pair of starly crashed into the teens, sending them to the ground in shock.

Lucas cursed under his breath and stayed low, glaring at the two birds, who didn't look

friendly in the slightest.

"What are we gonna do?!" Barry shouted in Lucas's ear, making the teen flinch a little in response.

"I don't know!" He answered with an irritated shout of his own. His mom had warned him about this, Arceus dammit

The teens continued in their struggle to avoid getting mercilessly pecked at by the two birds. As they rolled around the small space allowed, Lucas bumped into the professor's briefcase and, in a moment of desperation, tore it open. Out of it tumbled three Poké Balls, each with tiny symbols on them to indicate their type; fire, water, or grass. Without thinking much about it, Lucas grabbed two of them at random and tossed one in Barry's general direction. The blonde noticed just in time to catch the sphere, and immediately released the pokémon from inside. Lucas followed suit right after, and two pokémon appeared in a flash of white light. The one which Barry had released was a small orange imp with a flaming tail, and from Lucas's ball came a green turtle with a brown shell and a plant sprout emerging from its head.

When the two pokémon fully materialized, both of the opposing starly flew backward, giving the teens and their pokémon room to breathe and get to their feet.

"This is so awesome," Barry muttered in disbelief. Lucas couldn't help but nod in agreement.

This was the closest they'd ever gotten to handling pokémon of their own, even if they couldn't rightfully say that the pokémon were theirs. They had more pressing concerns at the moment, however. The starly began approaching like before, except they looked ready to fight their new opponents. Barry was the first to react, and called out, "Go get 'em… Chimchar, right?"

"Yup," Lucas replied, "and my guy's a turtwig."

"Thanks. Go get 'em, Chimchar!" The imp cheered in agreement and charged towards its

opponent, scratching at it with small claws.

Meanwhile, Lucas and Turtwig were taking things slow and steady. The teen doubted the turtle's ability to go after a starly in the air, so he waited for it to come after them. When it did and began to peck at him, Turtwig lurched forwards and slammed into the bird with a powerful tackle attack, sending it flying back. It regained its balance midair and repeated the same attack that it had attempted before, but much faster. Before Lucas could give the order, Turtwig retreated into his shell, taking little damage as the starly tired itself out attacking him. Once the bird let up its attack, Lucas ordered, "Tackle it hard!"

Turtwig complied and tackled the bird one more time, with enough force to send the starly skidding across the ground. For a few moments, it struggled to rise, but exhaustion took over and it gave up, fainting instead.

With a single glance, Lucas noted that Barry and Chimchar had achieved similar results, though their enemy looked to have been roughed up way more than his own. Nonetheless, they'd taken down their assailants, and as Barry and Chimchar hopped around and cheered, Lucas knelt to pet Turtwig's head. The grass type seemed to appreciate the petting and nuzzled against his hand to get the most out of it that he could.

The moment was ruined, however, when a female voice interjected. "What's going on here?"

Lucas and Barry stiffened and stood straight, looking over to see that the one asking was none other than the bluenette that had been waking with the professor, looking quite peeved. "Well, it's a bit complicated…" Lucas began to say when Barry interrupted and shouted, "We're innocent, I swear!"

Lucas shot him a dirty look, and once Barry realized what he'd done, he gave him a sheepish look. Of course, none of what they'd said (or hadn't gotten a chance to say) convinced the girl of their innocence, and she continued to look at them with doubt evident in her expression. She opened her mouth to continue inquiring about whatever had happened when Professor Rowan appeared from behind her, asking, "What's taking you so long to grab my briefcase, Dawn?"

The old man halted his approach at the sight of two guilty-looking teens with his Pokémon and his assistant looking as if she was ready to blow a fuse. "What's going on?" He asked gruffly, putting on a stem face so that they all knew he meant business.

"I came to retrieve your briefcase and found these two messing around with two of the pokémon from inside it." Dawn accused coldly, pointing to the two.

"Hold up, hold up; we weren't fooling around! We came and found your briefcase over at this tree when a pair of wild starly attacked us. I bumped into your suitcase and these Poké Balls fell out so I figured we might as well use anything available to make it out of the situation safely." Lucas explained, gesturing around the area to help prove his point.

The old man followed Lucas's pointed finger to the two pokémon and sighed asking for Dawn to go heal the fainted birds back to consciousness, handing her two potions from within his coat. She obeyed his request without protest, though she did shoot him an odd look. While his assistant went and did that, Professor Rowan approached the two suspects, sternly looking them over, up and down. Not knowing what to do, Lucas and Barry both stood with their backs straight, trying to look confident and as though their legs weren't on the verge of wobbling like jelly.

"What are your names?" The professor asked when he was done sizing them up.

"I am Lucas Dime, and this is my friend, Barry Pearl," Lucas announced gulping slightly.

At that, the old man's eyes went wide in surprise. "Lucas Dime and Barry Pearl? From Earl's Trainer School?" He asked, the gruffness in his tone all but lost.

The two boys nodded, and Rowan's eyes went even wider than before. "You know us?" Barry asked when he finally got sick of just standing there.

"Yes, I do. Or at least I've heard of you two. I've been keeping tabs on you," Professor Rowan announced, prompting the boys' jaws to drop in shock.

"The two of you piqued my interest while in school. I also noticed that you're both related to some very famous people, but that means much less to me," The professor continued.

Never had either teen so much as entertained the thought that the professor Rowan himself was watching them, or that he knew of their grades and families.

"Meeting you here was unexpected, but otherwise things are going according to plan," He went on, muttering to himself. By then, Dawn had finished healing the starly and returned to his side, only to hear that.

"What plan?" Dawn questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"I've been thinking about giving away some new pokémon to young trainers, among other things, and these two have been at the top of my list for a long time," Rowan revealed, and the teens struggled to contain their excitement. Or, at least Lucas tried. Barry was already bouncing on his heels.

"So does that mean…" Lucas trailed off, trying to not get his hopes up too high.

"These two seem to have taken a liking to you," the professor glanced down at the Pokémon at their feet, both of whom looked comfortable with the two, before continuing, "So I don't see the problem in you keeping them."

The moment those words left his mouth, Barry began to hop about, and despite himself, Lucas joined in. Professor Rowan gave a small smile at the excited boys then walked past the two to retrieve his still open briefcase and the last of his three pokémon. Once done with that, he returned to where he'd been standing before. "I have more things that I'd like to talk to you two about at my lab, but I'll be busy for the next few days, so come to Sandgem three days from now." He announced, and the boys stopped their cheering momentarily to nod.

With that, the professor left, Dawn at his heels. When they had made it out of earshot, Dawn asked, "Are you sure it was wise to just hand them such rare Pokémon? Even if you've had your eye on them, they were pretty reckless and tampered with things they shouldn't have."

"I'll admit that they acted recklessly, but I have confidence that they'll mature through possessing Pokemon of their own. And I'm sure that their parents will do better at scolding them than me." The professor replied.

The two continued on their way to the lab in silence, until the professor held out the last Poké Ball; Piplup's, to Dawn. As expected, her jaw dropped and she gave him a shock-filled look. Keeping his face straight, he explained, "I never told you this, but aside from those two, you were also at the top of my list for giving away a pokémon. Now that the other two have theirs, I think it's only befitting you get your own. Besides, she has always seemed to have a soft spot for you."

At his explanation, Dawn took the ball and looked at it deeply, almost as though she

could see inside of it. Then, a soft smile graced her lips as she lowered the ball and walked on with the professor, a new pep in her step. The professor almost chuckled at the sight but held his composure. He still had his reputation as the stern-faced professor to keep up.

Back at the lake, after both Lucas and Barry had stopped cheering quite so much, Barry announced, "We're having a battle, right now."

Lucas's grin died immediately so that he could shoot his friend a confused look.

"I said we're going to have a battle, right now," the blond repeated impatiently, crossing his arms to look more serious.

"Barry, we only just got our Pokémon, and we just finished battling some wild pokémon," Lucas pointed out when he'd gotten over the absurdity of his friend's demand.

"Oh please, neither took any real damage. We're battling right here, right now," the blond insisted, sounding more and more like a petulant child.

His friend sighed deeply, facepalming at his antics. He had half a mind to walk back home right then and there, but knowing Barry, that wouldn't work very well. Luckily for him, the blond's stomach had perfect timing, and growled, giving Lucas the leverage he needed. "How about we wait until after breakfast to battle?"

Barry grumbled, both at Lucas and his stomach, but complied anyway, running off with Chimchar in tow. When they'd gone off, Lucas and Turtwig shared a look, shrugging in unison.

* * *

"... And then the professor ended up letting Barry and me keep the pokémon, asking us to visit his lab in a few days. Oh, Barry also challenged me to a battle, but that's for later," Lucas finished recounting his morning to his mother, taking a sip of coffee as he did.

Johanna, who had shown overwhelming surprise to see her son waltz into the house with a pokemon beside him simply nodded in response. Beside the dining table, Turtwig ate his meal from one of their spare bowls, chattering a bit with their Roxy, their pet glameow, the pet of their house. His mother had more Pokemon than that, being a famous, albeit retired, coordinator, but she left them with her parents to keep their small house from getting too cluttered, and switched in members occasionally, and always for the holidays. Roxy just didn't take up much space and minded her own business more often than not, so she got to stay year-round.

"So," Johanna started after moments of silence, "you stepped into the grass even after I explicitly told you not to?"

Lucas groaned. Of course, that's what would stick with her."I tried warning Barry not to go in, but he wouldn't listen to me."

"That doesn't explain why you went in with him,"

"Well, you know, sometimes I get curious, too," her son replied, scratching at the back of his head in embarrassment.

"And curiosity is what killed the Meowth, isn't it?" His mom countered, a small smile gracing her lips as she watched her son squirm in his seat, struggling to find a response.

Before he could find one, someone knocked on their door loudly, grabbing both of their attention. Without giving either of them time to respond, the person knocked again, louder this time. That could only be one person.

Excusing himself from the table, Lucas made his way to the door and opened it to find Barry, to no one's surprise.

"It's after breakfast," the blond pointed out.

"I'm still eating mine," Lucas deadpanned.

"Well too bad. If you make me wait any longer I'll fine you ten million poké, so hurry up," Barry urged.

The black-haired teen sighed, shaking his head a bit, then looked at Barry. "Alright, we'll battle, but let me go get Turtwig and tell my mom first."

His friend whooped in victory before running off, probably to the town's center so that they could gather an audience. Despite himself, Lucas grinned at the sight before heading inside.

Three minutes later, Lucas and Barry were in the center, staring each other down from three yards away. They had yet to do much as release their Pokemon from their balls, but a crowd had already gathered to watch, cheering for each of the boys.

"It's finally time for us to battle, huh?" Lucas asked playfully, a smirk on his face.

"Hell yeah, it is! Let's do this!" Barry answered, grinning widely and flailing his arms emphatically.

At that, the crowd went silent to watch the two teens retrieve their poke balls and throw them to begin the match.

"Show them what we've got, Chimchar!"

"You've got this, Turtwig!"

As the two starter pokemon materialized the cheering started again, louder this time, drawing a chuckle from Lucas. Twinleaf was small and usually quiet, but its people sure knew how to hype someone up.

"Use Scratch!" Barry commanded Chimchar once the imp gathered his bearings.

The imp sprung into action lunging towards Turtwig with outstretched claws. Once he reached the turtle, he began to claw at its face until Lucas ordered Turtwig to withdraw.

The turtle did so quickly, retreating into his shell. Chimchar, however, continued to claw at the shell, only for the attacks to bounce off the target. Noting his opponent's vulnerable position, Turtwig shot his head out of the shell, ramming it into the imp's stomach, sending him tumbling backward.

"Good thinking," Lucas complimented nicely. The turtle responded with a grunt.

From his side of the battle, Barry watched Chimchar rise, ordering a leer. In response, the imp shot Turtwig a harsh glare, showing off his sharp canines for maximum intimidation, which wasn't much. The turtle didn't look impressed and retaliated by retreating into its shell and ignoring the imp. Lucas smirked at that and taunted, "Can't get past the shell, can you?"

Barry growled and that taunt and shouted for Chimchar charge Turtwig, even as he waited in his shell. The imp hesitated for a second before lunging forward like earlier. Once again, as he reached the opponent, Chimchar began to scratch at its shell, to no effect, irritating both trainer and pokemon.

"Tackle him, then use Withdraw real quick," Lucas commanded, and Turtwig answered with perfect execution of the orders.

Barry growled lowly, racking his brain for ideas on how to get past Turtwig's defenses, before glancing at Chimchar's tail. He grinned wide and giggled slightly before shouting, "Stick your butt in its shell, right where it's head is!"

Everyone shot him confused looks for a moment as Chimchar immediately followed the command before they putting the pieces together. Before Lucas could warn Turtwig of what was coming, the imp was upon him, stuffing his tail flame in his face. Almost immediately the turtle left its shell to avoid being smothered, only to find himself faced with a glaring imp, pouncing on him with a series of fierce scratches.

On instinct, Turtwig lurched forward and began tackling Chimchar, even as the imp continued to claw at him. Despite Lucas's orders to disengage and regain its bearings, the turtle continued attacking his opponent, likely not hearing the trainer's commands over the heat of battle and the audience, who had begun cheering much louder than before. Out of ideas, Lucas cheered the turtle on with the rest of the crowd as Barry did the same for Chimchar.

The battle went on like that for a minute longer before Chimchar cried in pain and slumped onto the ground, signifying Turtwig's victory. For a moment, all cheering ceased, before the crowd exploded with a series of deafening cries. Both trainers hurried over to their pokemon to pick them up, Lucas to pat Turtwig's head and compliment it for a good job, while Barry murmured thank his partner.

A few minutes later, after the spectators had all given their congratulations and condolences, both trainers' mothers were there offering each of them potions and a revive to heal their pokemon. In no time, Turtwig and Chimchar looked more energized, albeit way more tired than they had before. Once Barry was done fretting over Chimchar, he had the imp perched upon his shoulder as he shook hands with Lucas.

"I might've lost this time, but just you wait till next time," Barry insisted, grinning despite his loss

"Sure you will. Try not to get too upset when you lose again," Lucas teased, mirroring

Barry's grin.

Both teens chuckled together and released their handshake, before heading off to their homes, to prepare for the journey to come

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That's the first chapter! If you liked it, please review and give me your best criticism! Until next time!


	2. 02: To The Lab

A/N: So… I'm back! I am so sorry that it's taken almost a whole year since the first chapter. To anyone that remained followers of this story (even those that forgot all about it, I won't blame you) thank you so much. I've been kicking myself over not focusing enough to actually get this chapter done, but now that everyone's under quarantine, I should have a good chance at getting myself to write for this story more. By the time I release this chapter, the next should already be in the works, so if you're still interested in this, that'll be something to look forward to.

Also, in case anyone hadn't noticed, I updated the first chapter, fixing up a lot of things and adding Barry and Lucas's first battle at the end. In the future, chapter edits will probably happen in bulk and won't be too often so that I can focus on updating the story with brand new chapters.

Now, without further ado, let's get this show on the road. Please enjoy the ride, and please review the story and criticize whatever you think could be improved, or outright removed.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon; it is the property of Game Freak and The Pokémon Company.

* * *

Chapter 2: To The Lab

"What was the point of coming here again?"

"For starters, it's got a nice view. And we got our first pokémon here. Why, is there somewhere else you wanna go?"

"Um… No. I was kinda hoping you were thinking what I was,"

"And that would be?"

"That this would be an awesome time to catch the legendary of the lake and thank the professor for the Pokemon."

"I thought you gave up on that by now. Wasn't your mom chewing you out when she found out we tried to capture our local deity?"

"Mom doesn't care about all that religious stuff. She was yelling at me for going into Dad's stuff and getting us into danger."

"My point still stands,"

"Alright, alright, I'll forget about it. What about your mom? Doesn't she pray to Mesprit and all that?"

"Technically yeah, but she's not uptight about it Besides, all I had to do was use this revolutionary trick called, 'not telling the whole truth' and I got off scot-free."

"Smartass."

Lucas and Barry chuckled together as they walked into the lake area's clearing. The lake area was still as calm as ever, ignoring that incident with the Starly, and nearly devoid of other human life.

The only other person besides the two teens was a blue-haired man wearing an odd, grey uniform, standing right at the lake's edge. He stood facing the water and seemed to be muttering, though Lucas couldn't tell to whom. For one reason or another, Lucas couldn't move from where he stood, weirdly entranced by the man. Instead, he strained his ears to listen in on whatever he was saying, only to hear bits and pieces of his speech, like, "The flowing time," or "The expanding space," and his announcing himself as Cyrus.

After that last one, the man swiftly turned, giving the lake barely a glance, and began to march towards the lake entrance, where Lucas and Barry stood still.

"Move," Cyrus commanded cooly after finding the two blocking his path.

For a moment, Lucas' breath caught in his throat as he stared up at the blue-haired man. He was not much taller than him, yet seemed to tower above. His figure was not impressive, yet emanated an aura of danger from all over. It was like staring into nothing; a deeply entrancing, terrifying nothingness.

Some voice in his head told Lucas to run off as far as he could, but the boy could only do as told, and step aside, followed by Barry a few seconds later.

Cyrus took a few seconds to stand there and fix both teens with an analytical glance, and when Lucas met it with one of his own, albeit much less intimidating, he failed to glean anything. No contempt. No conceit. Nothing, but emptiness.

In the back of his mind, Lucas spat at the idea. No person was without emotion, some were just good at hiding it and locking emotions up. Given more time, maybe he could've broken through Cyrus's finely constructed mask, but the man left long before that, leaving Lucas staring into blank space until Barry muttered, "What a weird guy."

Then, as though some sort of spell had broken and nothing happened, the blonde straightened himself up and walked to the lake's side, motioning for Lucas to follow. The brunet complied, shelving thoughts of the man as he joined his friend in indulging in nature. He hadn't taken the time to appreciate it when they'd last visited, but Lake Verity was truly beautiful, and he felt thankful that such a sight could be so close to his home.

Lucas closed his eyes and breathed in the natural air, sighing it out. Then he cracked open an eye, finding Barry with his arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently. Lucas sighed once more.

"You can go now," Lucas granted, and Barry's whole appearance lit up.

"Sweet! See you later!" Less than ten seconds later, Barry was long gone, leaving his best friend alone by the lakefront.

"Of course he would do that," Lucas chuckled to himself, shoving his hands in his pockets and taking some more time to appreciate the sight of the lake. Before long he made like Barry and left, but not before releasing Turtwig from his Pokeball and allowing the green turtle to stroll beside him.

* * *

"So this is Sandgem. Neat," Lucas muttered aloud as he walked into the small town. From beside him, Turtwig trotted comfortably.

Although the town didn't appear too different from Twinleaf, it felt different enough. A couple more buildings and a beach made a difference, he supposed. For a few more minutes he went on walking through the town, looking for the lab with no luck, until someone behind him announced, "You're going the wrong way."

He turned in the direction of the speaker, finding that it was none other than Professor Rowan's assistant from a few days ago (Dawn if his memory served right). She looked virtually the same as she had at the lake, with the same blank expression, except now she held a Piplup in her arms, close to her chest. It looked comfortable there, but not overly familiar, so she'd likely received it recently. Maybe even on the same day as him and...

"My face is up here," Dawn called again, snapping Lucas out of his head.

"Oh, uh, sorry. I get stuck in my head," Lucas apologized, scratching at the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Didn't seem to be the case at the lake," She challenged with a raised eyebrow.

"Just the adrenaline," he shrugged.

"Whatever you say. Anyway, as I was saying, you're going the wrong way. You passed the lab a couple of buildings ago,"

"Oh. Mind leading me there?"

"That's what I'm here for,"

As the two trainers walked on beside each other, Piplup squirmed its way out of her trainer's arms and onto the ground, next to Turtwig, who'd been silent throughout the whole encounter.

"You have a weird human," the blue penguin chirped.

"Maybe so," Turtwig replied curtly, barely sparing the penguin a glance.

"Well my human is nothing like that; she is much more graceful. And, as you must see, she is much better looking, if you ask me," Piplup replied, poking out her chest.

"Never asked, but okay. Mine is good enough,"

"Good enough is not acceptable!"

"Whatever," Turtwig sighed. Piplup was always like this, and he'd long since realized that letting her win was best.

Meanwhile, their trainers kept silent and to themselves as they made it to the lab. When they finally made it, Dawn moved to open the door when it swung open and Barry popped out, running straight into the bluenette and knocking her on her butt.

"Oh! Watch where you're - Lucas! You're here! Took you long enough. Lemme tell you, the professor is way scarier and more strict than I thought he would be! But he's still a really nice guy, too! Anyways, I've gotta go! Catch you later!" The blond babbled in a single breath before leaving as suddenly as he'd appeared

"Sorry about that. Barry is too energetic for his good, and he's run into so many people at this point that I don't think he realizes they get annoyed," Lucas apologized as he helped Dawn get up, struggling not to chuckle at the agitated look on her face.

"Couldn't even apologize for himself," She huffed, among a series of obscenities and swears. The girl took a few more seconds and deep breaths to calm down, then proceeded to lead Lucas into the professor's lab.

A couple of minutes and rooms later, the two were standing in Professor Rowan's private office. It was all Lucas could do to keep from staring around the barren room in search of anything special. He'd always imagined that the room of a regional professor and once accomplished trainer would be full of plaques and trophies, but lo and behold; the office held little more than a desk and some pictures framed upon the wall.

As for the man himself, he was seated at his desk, some mix between a frown and an impassive look on his face. He did perk up slightly at the sight of Lucas, thankfully.

"Ah, Lucas. Good that you came right after your friend. I'm sure you bumped into him on his way out," Rowan greeted.

"I did. Er, well, Dawn did, but that's probably not what you meant," Lucas ignored the bluenette's glare in favor of continuing. "But yeah, I'm here. Though I'm surprised Barry was only just leaving by the time I got here. I half expected him to be in Jubilife by now,"

"That would be thanks to all of his questions and wandering around the lab, but he left as soon as he got his fill," the professor admitted, and Lucas nodded. That sounded like Barry

"Anyway, that is not what you are here to discuss. Would you mind letting me see the turtwig I gave you?"

On cue, the turtle grunted, grabbing the professor's attention. He seemed to appraise the pokemon for a bit, glancing between it and Lucas before giving an approving nod and grunt. "Turtwig seems to have grown fond of you already,"

"I guess he has," Lucas agreed, glancing at the turtle, receiving a grunt, which sounded nice enough.

"Good, good. Have you considered giving him a nickname then?" Rowan inquired.

Lucas hadn't thought too deeply about it, but one idea for a name had come to mind.

"What do you think about Leif?" Lucas questioned the turtle. Turtwig seemed to contemplate the name for a few

"Root? Not awfully creative of you," Dawn commented from behind him, reminding Lucas that she was still there.

"It's creative enough," Lucas defended, shrugging off the snide remark

"Ehem," the professor cleared his throat, drawing Lucas's attention back to the elderly man.

"Root is a perfectly fine name, but let's move onto the main reason for you being here," With that, the professor picked up a small red box and presented it to Lucas.

"This is the newest version of the Pokedex," Rowan stated, but Lucas had long since realized what it was.

Professor Rowan, on top of being Sinnoh's regional professor, was known for being extremely strict with handing out pokedexes. Every decade or so rumors would spread on a new batch of trainers with pokedexes taking the Sinnoh region by storm, and with them came poor replicas of the encyclopedia, along with imported ones from overseas. But nothing could compare to Rowan-produced dexes, and the idea that one might be given to him had Lucas near salivating.

"Now, I'm sure you know that I don't hand these out to just anybody, but don't let that get into your head. Even with one of these you're only a beginner when it comes to being a trainer, and even less in the eyes of the elites," the professor stated coldly, forcing Lucas back to reality.

"I see great potential in you, and believe that this will help cultivate that, but do not ever let yourself get cocky. Nor should you go around flaunting this like you're some hotshot; there will always be someone better than you, and some of them may even be willing to take this from you by force."

Lucas resisted the urge to cringe physically as he was presented the harsh truth and possibilities that came with owning something so precious. Of course, being who he was he'd thought these things would be the case, but to hear it all from the mouth of another made it feel so much more real. But he swallowed those thoughts and nodded, putting a look of conviction in his face.

Professor Rowan stared for a second before nodding himself, a hint of pride and recognition in his eye. Then he handed the encyclopedia to Lucas, he took it gingerly. Immediately he flipped open the device and its screen lit up. For a few seconds, it displayed nothing before switching to a setup screen, though the trainer put it away soon after. He would get to that later.

"I hope you enjoy this gift and go on to use it well, but do keep in mind that I'm not giving it purely out of the goodness of my heart. I'm expecting detailed and extensive reports on your findings and of any Pokémon, you decide to capture or train," the professor finished, a stern look on his face.

"Yes sir," Lucas saluted, and that was the end of that.

A few minutes later the young trainer had left the office, accompanied by Dawn, who was to give him a short tour of the town and its facilities. But before that, Professor Rowan gave Lucas one last gift; a TM for the move Return. After that, he dismissed the boy, and Dawn took charge of him. Within a few minutes, they'd gone through the basics of what a Pokémon Center looked like, or what a poke mart looked like, and that was it for everything interesting, as Dawn put it, so the tour stopped there.

"I'd offer to show you how to capture a pokémon, but I'm sure you know what to do," Dawn said as the two walked around aimlessly, no destination in mind.

Lucas shrugged at the non-offer."Well, thanks anyway."

"You know what you're gonna do next?" Dawn inquired.

"Guess I'll go home and give my mom a real goodbye. It's still early, so I can probably Jubilife City before it gets too dark," Lucas explained casually.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll see you there," And with that, Dawn walked off towards Route 202 without saying another word.

Lucas spent a few seconds watching the girl walk off, before shrugging and muttering to himself, "She's a weird one."

* * *

"You do know that you didn't have to come back, yes?" Johana asked as her son plopped himself onto their couch.

"Come on, mom. If I didn't then you'd be giving me an earful over the phone" Lucas retorted, swiping a bottle of water off the nearby coffee table and taking a swig.

"You're damn right I would. But I'd never blame you for not wanting to backtrack on your first day," His mother replied before seating herself beside Lucas.

"I wanted to say goodbye in person, too. After this it'll be just you and Roxy," Lucas admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and avoiding eye contact with his mother.

Johana, on the other hand, was struggling to keep it together. She kept a straight face, but on the inside, her dams were ready to burst. The woman rarely cried, but she was not without emotion, and having to send off her son on his adventure was about to set her tear ducts off.

Before the waterworks could start flowing, Barry's mother barged in through the front door, much like her son would. Lucas and Johana jumped to their feet at that, and only starred as Mrs. Pearl took a few seconds to catch her breath, as though she'd sprinted straight from her home.

"Oh, Lucas! Thank Arceus you're here! Have you seen Barry? He ran out this morning, barely shot me a good morning, and I haven't seen nor heard from him since!" the middle-aged woman cried, leaving herself little time to breathe.

Lucas's face was blank for a few seconds until it morphed into an expression of dumbfounded shock, which he covered with a heavy facepalm.

"Don't worry about it, Mrs. Pearl. I was with him earlier, and he went to the Professor's lab in Sandgem. He's probably halfway to Jubilife City by now," Lucas explained, removing his hand from his face to get a better look at Mrs. Pearl.

She was furious.

"Well then," she began tersely, "thank you so much. Would you mind finding him and handing him this for me?" With that, the woman pulled out a small package, all wrapped up like a present and, despite the polite way she'd asked, all but shoved the package into his hands.

Not wanting to be on the receiving end of the woman's wrath, the black haired teen took the present and stuffed it into his bookbag, nodding vigorously all the way.

"Why thank you. I'll come back for a chat later, Johana." Mrs. Pearl announced cordially before walking to the door.

Before she left, however, she turned sharply and looked Lucas dead in the eye. "Also, Lucas, sweetie. Please tell Barry to call me immediately the next time he's remotely near a telephone of some sort," The woman finished, a sickly sweet tone to her voice as she grinned an identical grin to her son's, albeit with much more malice behind it.

Then Mrs. Pearl made her exit almost as quickly as she'd barged in, leaving both members of the Dime household simultaneously confused and terrified for her son, no matter how he'd brought her wrath upon him.

"Guess it's a good thing I stopped by," Lucas muttered in an attempt to clear the mood.

"Guess so," his mother echoed in agreement.

* * *

Author's Note: So there it is, the second chapter of this story! Despite how long it took me to finish and publish this chapter, it's been in the works ever since I posted the first (not that I was constantly working on it) and I hope that everyone here enjoyed, although nothing really happened in it. I just really wanted to get this one out so I could convince myself to keep going with this. The next chapter should have more in the way of action and story. But don't leave the story just yet! I've decided to include a little something to help with worldbuilding for Sinnoh as well as give a little extra info on important characters, Sinnoh lore, or things like that I feel can't comfortably just be fit into the main story. Here's the first one!

P.S. In the future these will probably come before the author's note, so you don't have to worry about reading paragraphs of just me if you're looking for lore and things of the sort.

* * *

Trainer Tips

Nolan Rowan: Sinnoh's Leading Pokemon Professor

Professor Nolan Rowan is a world-renowned researcher and leader in the field of pokemon evolution. His discoveries have helped with developing machines and trainer items intended to aid with certain pokemon's evolutions (e.g. the Magmarizer and Electirizer). He's also been a major help in discovering the often odd and obscure evolution methods for other pokemon, like Tangela and Yanma's need to learn Ancient Power.

Rowan's fame does not solely come from his status as a regional professor, however. It started in his youth when he claimed the title of Sinnoh League Champion at what was then the youngest age for any champion. He was also once rivals with the equally famous Professor Samuel Oak and to this day the two regard each other as close friends and colleagues. Not to mention he mentored the Kalos region's Augustine Sycamore, a rising star of sorts in the world of researching pokemon evolution, albeit more focused on the odd phenomenon of Mega Evolution.

Unfortunately, despite his fame and impressive record, Professor Rowan is not particularly well regarded by people outside of the scientific community because of his stance on distributing the highly coveted pokemon encyclopedia known as the Pokedex. Because of Rowan's strict stance on handing any out, Sinnoh is one of few regions to not have any mass-produced and distributed pokedexes from its own professor. Instead, the League produces and supplies trainers with their own versions of the machine (likely only allowed because the professor was once the face of the League). They pale in quality to any of Rowan's and constantly fail to catch up with any of his because of how secretly he makes and hands any of them out to anybody.

Despite this, Rowan is still looked highly upon by members of the scientific community and many more and is regarded as the go-to figure for anything related to the field of pokemon evolution.


End file.
